I’ve never played an NBA game, but I got my first assist tonight. Not
from the Target Center official scorekeeper, but from Wolves coach
Randy Wittman, who sort of attributed his team’s fourth victory in its
first 25 games — a rollicking 131-118 decision over Indiana — to
today’s front page Star Tribune story whose headline asked if the
Wolves, with their 3-21 start, could be headed toward “the worst team
ever?”

Without Jaric and McCants and with Smith recovering, Wittman moved rookie forward Corey Brewer to the backcourt and gave former Florida teammate Chris Richard his first NBA start in the frontcourt with Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes in a move Wittman said was intended to infuse some spirit and spunk in the lineup.

Buckner had missed seven consecutive games because of a strained right
calf before leaving the team on Friday for an undetermined amount of
time.

Telfair was a driving force behind the Wolves’
131-118 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Friday night. He matched his
career high with 27 points and season high with 11 assists. And he did
it while playing all 48 minutes, which means he will have to fight
fatigue in tonight’s game at New Orleans.

Coach Randy Wittman joked that Telfair will have to
play all 48 minutes again. Thing is, there might be some truth to that,
because Telfair is the Wolves’ only healthy point guard.

This should tell you how poorly teams generally do when they trade away
a franchise player. A deal skewered here (and elsewhere) countless
times in the five months since it went down ranks as the second-best of
its kind that we’ve seen in the past few years. Really.

Every fan base/team owner which gets entranced by the embrace of pure,
unfiltered youth should have to spend a week following the Wolves. High
draft picks and cap space might look fun, but it’s apparently not.

Even for the teams not playing, Christmas can be a work day for NBA clubs – as Antoine Walker has found out.

Walker was with the Heat for two of those Christmas games. He was
traded during this year’s training camp to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"I liked playing on Christmas, personally. I thought it was a lot of
fun being on the national stage,” Walker said. "The game is big.
Everybody’s at home. I’d rather be playing. We’ve got to travel that
day. We’re flying to Oakland that day. So I’d rather be in the other
situation.”